Sunday, August 15, 2010

Holly Near was influential in the formation and promotion of the women's music movement and continues to influence and participate creating music that speaks out for change action and acceptance.

Near was born in rural Ukiah,California in 1949, growing up with two sisters in a supportive, liberal family environment led by her political activist parents. The entertainer in her began early, singing publicly at eight, leading to local talent shows and then later, theater productions.

After starting high school in 1963, she began singing with the Freedom Singers, a folk group modeled on The Weavers. In 1968, she enrolled in the Theater Arts program at UCLA; that year, she attended her first Vietnam War peace vigil and joined Another Mother for Peace. Her passionate commitment to social change became full blown, from those experiences she took her musical talents to primarily on politically-themed music.

But it wasn't just activism and music, while at UCLA at age 20, Near had broken into TV and movies, on All in the Family, Mod Squad, and The Partridge Family, and movies Cult of the Damned (1969), the John Cassavetes' Minnie and Moskowitz (1971), and Slaughterhouse Five (1972).

In 1970, Near was a cast member of the Broadway musical, Hair. Following the Kent State shootings, the entire cast staged a silent vigil in protest. Her song, "It Could Have Been Me", was her heartfelt response to the shootings. In 1971, she joined the FTA (Free The Army) Tour, an anti-Vietnam War road show of music, comedy and plays, organized by antiwar activist Fred Gardner and actors Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland.

Near began writing music and formed her label Redwood Records, which she created specifically to release her first album, Hang in There in 1973, and became a label for those ............ She created Redwood Records because major labels told her that her lyrics were simply too political straightforwardly addressing issues such as gay rights, feminism, pacifism, and racism.

Her work in helping to create women's music genre distinguishes her from other political singers of the time. She toured in support of the peace movement and other potical causes, but she quickly became especially associated with the Women's movement and the Women's music movement. She performed at the first Michigan Womyn's Music Festival in 1976; where she came out as a lesbian.

After coming out Redwood became a lesbian-feminist label. Near's parents had been helping to run Redwood in the beginning, but turned it over to her and the women who would become her business partners. Redwood "took its place alongside the legendary Olivia Records as one of the most important alternative record labels."

But her lesbian identification leaned more toward political rather than the completely personal, and "even then she never felt entirely comfortable with lesbian-feminist separatism." She had had relationship with men before coming, and when she had relationships with men later, it was met with some feelings of distrust by many in the women's music community.

Despite her reluctance to put a label on her sexuality, she worked to regain the trust of the women's music community by her commitment to lesbian issues and continuing to use lesbian themes in her work. "Except for the purpose of inviting people out of isolation or for the purpose of defense, "I try to avoid self-definition through group identity."

For Near, her idea of lesbianism is not a narrow one defined simply by sexual experience or preference. "My lesbianism is not linked to sexual preference," she writes. "For me, it is part of my world view, part of my passion for women and central in my objection to male domination."

Whatever her views on self-definition, her adamantly feminist views, with her continual promotion of gay and lesbian rights and culture, make her an important and accepted part of the movement.

Many of her songs are genderless to appeal across all sexual and gender lines, but she also writes songs that specifically celebrate lesbian love ("Simply Love") and lesbianism itself ("She").

It's no accident that her best known song is the inclusive anthem "Singing for Our Lives," which has the refrain "We are Gay and Straight together . . ./ We are old and young together . . . / We are a gentle loving people / And we are singing, singing for our lives." The song is a part of Singing the Living Tradition, the official hymnal of the Unitarian Universalist Association, under the title "We Are A Gentle, Angry People" (Hymn #170)

Her album Simply Love: The Women's Music Collection is a compilation from over the last 25 years of her career and inclues other classic women's music artists such as Alix Dobkin, Meg Christian, and Cris Williamson.

And add writing prose to her long list of talents, Near wrote a children's book, The Great Peace March in 1997 and her autobiography was in 1990.

She returned to acting in 1991, in the movie Dogfight and then in 1998 in Heartwood.

She has been recognized by the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, and the National Organization for Women, and was chosen as Ms. Magazine's 1985 Woman of the Year. Her pioneering work with lesbian and feminist music earned her the 2000 Legends of Women's Music Award.

During her long career in folk and protest music, with over 20 albums to her credit, she has worked with a wide array of musicians, including Ronnie Gilbert, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Mercedes Sosa, Bernice Johnson Reagon, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Meg (Shambhavi) Christian, Cris Williamson, Linda Tillery, Joan Baez, Phil Ochs, Harry Belafonte, and many others, as well as the Chilean exile group, Inti-Illimani.

Near continues to tour, speaking out for change, for women rights, for peace, for all people. She also teach performance and songwriting classes passing on her gifts and talents on to new voices of change.

73 comments:

Quick! Destiny!! You want to go see Bomer again? Look what I found on Craigs List. Here we go with the Fisher Price link:

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/wst/tix/1897146223.html

For $150.00:

BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR AWARDS 8/15SUNDAY, AUGUST 15th, 2010Each ticket to the 2010 Breakthrough of the Year Awards in Los Angeles, Californiawill be for seats in the first 10 rows• Access for two to walk the official red carpet• Access to the Welcome Cocktail Reception• tickets to the official after‐party

Do you reckon this is somebody who has tickets or something and is selling them? I've heard alot about Craigs List and it's very successful for some friends I've talked to but I've never gotten on there.

Well, tell that to Disney's and Bruckheimer's marketing because they clearly were also going for the family movie market, including kids under 13. The Lego toy tie-in is another indication of that. If Jake has a mental obsession about children and can't keep himself from talking about them, as was theorized in the last post, then he'd bring kid-related stuff up in all interviews no matter what movie he's promoting - and he doesn't and he won't. He didn't go on the Disney Channel and Disney Radio because he has hidden kids somewhere, he went on the Disney Channel and Disney Radio because that's where the PTB sent him and he didn't talk about making the movie for the kids in his life (friends, cousins, etc) because he has hidden kids, he did it as part of the marketing strategy.

Yes, and Jim Sheridan was also involved in promoting PoP way before it even came out. That's why he said Jake was "up all night with the kid".So that PoP would get that crucial under 1 year-old demographic.

And of course lets not forget all his pre-occupation with parenting during Rendition, clearly Jerry Bruckheimer told him to build up to PoP promotion 3 years before it came out.

LOL PG. Get me all worked up why don't you. ;) And here I wasn't even around this afternoon, and my gf beat me to the computer when we got home, lol. But gold stars and many thanks for looking around again. Hopefully we'll get some pictures, or maybe even some video clips.

Holly Near is one of those people I appreciate for what she has done, but have never been a fan of her music.

Just got back from meeting our cousin and her son for dinner. Wow. Talking to her son, who is the same age as my niece which is 10 yrs, was like talking to someone my age with several PhD's or something. Holy cow. He gave me a demonstration of the Iphone4 that would have had Apple hiring him on the spot.

That was incredible. I cannot believe he was only 10. He plays golf, tennis, dirt bike rides and knows Spanish pretty fluently. And he has an email account already and knows already not to register so much because those emails just clutter in your inbox.

LOLLLL!! Good gosh.

And speaking of Junk email, we learned something tonight from them. Did you know that Pottery Barn keeps track of where you look on their website? My cousin said that every item you look at on their website, they will email you later and ask, "We noticed you looked at such-and-such. What did you think of it?" Creeeee-py. I know that alot of companies do this but that's pretty blatant.

Looking around the on Breakthrough Awards website, when you click on the contact person, they have Hollywoodlife.com email address. So the two are somehow connected.

Hollywood Life.com is Bonnie Fuller's Celebrity news website.

Actually she was hired to relaunch the whole thing. And she has the experience to do it.

Fuller was the Vice President and Chief Editorial Director of American Media (Star, Shape, Men's Fitness, Natural Health, and Fit Pregnancy). She was brought on to take Star from a tabloid to a weekly entertainment celebrity news glossy magazine.

Just found this link on DL about what the top stars on TV make, which I found pretty interesting. I was surprised to see Bomer makes so much--$100k an episode! Bet he had a big jump between the first and "second" season running now.

Well, late night tonight here in the Midwest. I'll pay tomorrow morning when my alarm goes off. That's what I get for napping this afternoon, lol.

But playing around on the internet and checking out some twitters, I've found it interesting that Sophia is actively twittering away for the past several hours. You wouldn't think she'd be doing that while attending an awards show.

# And MY real FB page for y'all is: www.facebook.com/sophiabushontheweb So you can report my fakers too! I feel like we're all detectives :) about 1 hour ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®

The CW, usually signs their casts on the low side to long contracts. But it different for Austin because he came in later in the series. The cast that has been there through all 8 seasons are making a pretty good chunk of change by now.

Austin, well the cast on the new 90210 gets around 40K-50K an episode. Probably is in keeping with what Austin gets as a new lead on 0TH. Maybe a little conservative side.

IHJ, - sorry about the problems, Blogger's new spam filter is being worked out and at the moment comments with links in the from unregistered users goes into a holding file for approval. The new filter has been out less than a week, so give it a little time and we should see the filter tweeked.

Well, talk about hokey. Trying to get info on these little Breakthrough Awards is like looking for a needle in a haystack.

It doesn't look like Austin was there either. There's a website called The Daily Truffle that is about all I've found and it lists the winners and who presented. Austin not listed either. So Austin's probably still in NC; guess he was just all talked out this weekend.

Interesting: Jake has two gift bags from the ol' Yolk store. Maybe one's for him. Otherwise, no further comment on those pictures.

I wonder if all the celebs wore a crown, walked over a bridge and received a plaque.

LOL.

Thanks for all the links Special, look forward to looking at the photos.

I'd be really surprised if Austin was making 40-50k an episode. OTH has a huge cast, and their ratings just aren't that good. Serials like that also make less money in syndication because you can't really just watch an episode here and there like you do with a crime drama. Would CMM really have walked if he was getting paid that kind of money??? Inquiring minds want to know, lol.

Can't believe they got that much for the new 90210, but they were probably expecting really big numbers for the show. Didn't it end up being canceled?

I really wouldn't be surprised at Austin making that much, since the storyline he's involved in is generating the most attention for the show, after losing Lucas and Peyton they needed another couple to step up in the fandom, and the given Brooke her "her pretty ending" to the story is probably gave them got them a season 8.

I did find this:

Q: What is the salary of the cast of One Tree Hill per episode?

A: The average cast member is paid $54,000 per episode. Thanks for using ChaCha!

Answered by Michael M. - Jun 20 2010, 12:21amFrom www.simplyhired.com

And then this comment:

Jamie

The main stars like James, Joy and Sophia make about $75K per episode but lesser-known stars like Rob, Shantel and Jana make about $50K per episode.2 days ago, 10:56pm

okay so i finally met James!! after being obsessed with him forever it was about time . haha okay well anyways i just got back from Wilmington and had a great time. I was an extra all day Friday then Saturday actaully ran into Austin, Sophia, Jana, and Austin's parents downtown just shopping so that was really fun but i wanted to meet James the most!

Now I'm confused. If Austin's mother was in Wilmy in order to watch the little Travertines while Austin was out in LA presenting an award and meeting up with his hubby, sans the litte Terracottas, well where are the little Terrazzos if Austin was out in Wilmy over the weekend with Sophia and both his parents?

Quote from Jim Sheridan interview. One can easily see how PR cleaned up the oopsie, although as usual they do a terrible job trying to awkwardly add that it's really Maggie's kid he was staying up with. Riiiiight. Why would he be taking care of Maggie's kid in New Mexico when he's on location shooting a film? Wanting to bond with his own newborn, however, would make a lot of sense.

You never know where [Jake's] looking. He’s kind of in the scene but he’s kind of looking around himself. It takes a bit of getting used to and it took me a few weeks to get used to Jake’s approach which is very unique in my experience. He just thinks he’s in real life — and he’s up on the screen. Jake is just the same now as on the thing, up with the kid, up with his sister’s kid. He keeps joking even when I get serious and all, don’t you?

from ted today " Dear Ted:Reading through the Blind Vices, I was wondering if you could talk more about the beards. So in the instance that one of the persons involved is straight, and they are caught in this sex scandal, how can they continue to keep the secret hidden? I mean I don't blame them for wanting a real love life, but it's hurting their public image, when the public finds out that person A is cheating, then person B gets all the sympathy. It just depresses me that gays cannot be accepted in our society, and that they must do so much to keep their careers.—Doli

Dear Cheater Cheater:Clearly you haven't heard of Shafterella Shoshstein, D. That crafty bitch was way involved with an über-fake relaysh but was boinking her secret, side BF (ya know, the real one) the whole time. Never caught once. Again, I say: crafty bitch, huh?"

Thank you "Daddy Jake drives people crazy" (fitting name, btw and so true). I was at work so I couldn't post the interview myself.

Well, here's the link to the full interview from the source and from WDW. So, what'll it be now? First it's all PoP promotion, then it's us supposedly making up quotes. I'm guessing the next step is to just go back to insults now.

I also find it very interesting that we are expected to post sources on our own blog, but our "friends" can come here and just post something without anything to back it up and then get indignant and rude when we ask them where they found this.

I thought Sheridan was refwerring to Bailee Madison or the other girl who played his niece in the movie.

Jake filmed Brothers from Nov 07 -Feb. 08, "BT" was supposedly born 10/07. Odd he would refer to a 5 month old as a kid and not a baby, doesn't Sheridan have kids? He should know the dif and would refer to a child that young as a baby.

1 bag or 2 who cares? That store Yolk not only carries kids toys and clothings, etc but stuff for adults as well like stuff for the home, clothes, jewlery, etc.

Oh, okay! Cool. Does this sound like the kind of adult stuff Jake would be interested in then? Here's a comment from yelp.com regarding the store, Yolk:

When Babies R Us won't due and Bel Bambini is too much...This is the place for gift shopping, mainly for baby.The place is small but full of surprises.It's eco-conscious and trendy.Design-conscious and fairly priced.

Aaaah, but of course! Because it's eco-conscious. That's right up Jake's alley. When BabiesRUs won't do.....Well, I suppose he could be buying a baby shower gift(s) for Neil Patrick Harris & David B. far ahead of time.

Yolk is the place where designers (of all genres) go when they die and go to heaven... Or if they have kids/need a gift for a kid or baby.

It's a store that carries fantastic baby/kids items, yet also stocks cool gift-like things that adults would covet. From adorable toys to super high-design pillows to cool notebooks, this place has it all. It's curated really well, so there is great stuff from Finland and NYC, and yet also offerings from local designers too! We heart that!

Oh now, this one's even more intriguing, from Vince D in Glendale:Yolk is a shop I would probably never go into by myself, but I've been here several times with my lady and really like it. The devil is in the details here. They have great style and a great selection of everything from pillows, to candles, to placemats, to books, etc. A really cool place to buy gifts for people who wear dresses and high heels (aka Transvestites). Women, too.

PS: why would he drag his 5 month old child to a movie set? Makes no sense. He was filming in N. Mexico, no need to drag the kid there, just a few hours flight to L.A.

First, people gripe because they say the guys are never together and they're filming too much to possibly have a baby. Now, it's a terrible idea to have the baby with the parent even on location. Never mind that rock stars travel with their kids and other actors/actresses are frequently seen and heard to take their families with them on location.

I guess the best solution is for the guys to completely retire from acting and be stay at home dads so they can be with the kids 24/7, 365 days a year.

Never said you made up the quote. I'd read that interview before. I said you took it out of context, which you did, so that's why I wanted to see the link. No one cleaned up any "oopsie." You orginally posted: That's why he said Jake was "up all night with the kid". You put that spin on it because it fits what you want to believe. As you can read from the linked interview that you are so happy to see, Sheridan never said "up all night." Anyone reading that sentence OBJECTIVELY can see that Sheridan wasn't talking about being up all night with any kid. He was talking about how Jake, on the set was "up" or engaged, he had a good rapport with the little girl in the movie, the same way he does in real life with Ramona. Notice how Sheridan said Jake was "up on the screen" - that doesn't mean Jake was up all night with the screen while it was teething. LOL.

Key word there, PrairieGirl, would be "families". You dint see many rock stars on the road without their partner (wife/husband) and just the little kids. Nor for that matter actors and actresses. If the kids are with them for any length of time you usually see the other parent there, provided both parents are still together. Which is what you suppose for Jaustin isn't it?

The bag issue is way too speculative for me. The interesting question for me is why we only see Ramona in a couple of pictures. Who was she with the rest of the time? If it was Maggie and Peter, why not show them? And actually, wasn't there a sighting of Maggie and Peter at the airport end of last week--maybe they took a trip together while Jake babysits?

Still finding it hard to believe Austin is more than an "uncle" who spends time with BT when the mood suits him. It sure the hell isn't my idea of a family.

Never said you made up the quote. I'd read that interview before. I said you took it out of context, which you did, so that's why I wanted to see the link. No one cleaned up any "oopsie." You orginally posted: That's why he said Jake was "up all night with the kid". You put that spin on it because it fits what you want to believe. As you can read from the linked interview that you are so happy to see, Sheridan never said "up all night." Anyone reading that sentence OBJECTIVELY can see that Sheridan wasn't talking about being up all night with any kid. He was talking about how Jake, on the set was "up" or engaged, he had a good rapport with the little girl in the movie, the same way he does in real life with Ramona. Notice how Sheridan said Jake was "up on the screen" - that doesn't mean Jake was up all night with the screen while it was teething. LOL.

Yes, I didn't quote it verbatim, but adding "all night" does not change the meaning. Whether Jake is up with "the kid" or "up with the kid all night" doesn't really change anything.

You wanna talk about taking things out of context? Then lets look at your post. Jim Sheridan did not say that Jake was engaging the little girl in the movie or that he had a good rapport with her. He clearly said "Jake just thinks he’s in real life — and he’s up on the screen." meaning that Jake is acting just like his real self but he's currently acting a scene. That's what being up on the screen means.

Then Sheridan says that Jake is behaving right now (during the press conference) like he was during shooting ("the thing") or like he did when he was up with "the kid". Jim is just listing different ocassions to show that Jake is always acting in the same way.

I have never before heard anyone say that "being up with someone" means "engaging them" or "having a good rapport with someone". How exactly is making up new meanings for words to make them mean what you want them to mean not considered spinning a story?

And never at any point in my sentence did I ever come close to saying that other bag was for BT. Let's see - what did I say exactly? Let's hit Rewind:

Interesting: Jake has two gift bags from the ol' Yolk store. Maybe one's for him. Otherwise, no further comment on those pictures.

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh, I actually said "maybe the other bag's for him"

Lookit. One sentence, one observance about these two stinkin' gift bags in Jake's hands and you've got trolls stirred up on here and you've got Special & myself being trashed over next door by the Crabbits.

With two kids, you wonder if maybe each gets special time just them and Daddy and them and Papa some times. Can see Austin having a little one on one with each of them, special weekends when he can't get away. Same with Jake when he's working.

The troll is certainly stirred up PG and Special. As I said next door, for someone who thinks we're all crackpots he sure spends a lot of time obsessing and disecting everything that gets said.

Austin wasn't working this weekend, so I don't see what was stopping him from spending time with the whole family. And it's not just this weekend, I just don't see any evidence that they spend even weekends together, let alone the breaks they have from work.

JJ has pictures of Isabel "Who" (with a guy) at a gallery opening for a show by Amber Heard's girlfriend. Maybe Who has been doing some bearding of her own??? Maybe it was Austin's connection to Heard that led to Jake and Isabel's whatever you want to call it time together?

Disclaimer

This blog is strictly for entertainment purposes. Its writers make no serious claims about the sexuality of either Jake Gyllenhaal or Austin Nichols. This blog is in no way affiliated with any Hollywood person or agency. Images and music used within this blog belong to their respective copyright owners and no infringement of copyright is ever intended.